Microsoft EPM is a enterprise project management solution and we often get the question: How do you differentiate from it? Here is the answer.

The following summary table will help you quickly grasp the differences and commonalities between Beeye and Microsoft EPM.

  Microsoft EPM Beeye
Goal Planning complex projets at a high level of detail. Get high-level visibility on all projects and activities.
Ideal for

Managing several large projects (e.g. building a bridge).

Managing projects in detail.

Planning all activities and assigning employees to the right activities.

Managing many projects and activities in parallel.

Strengths Precision and level of detail to manage a project.

Complete view over all the information.

Ease of use.


Complex tool which can generate lot of mistakes.

Time consuming.

Requires full-time expert project managers to keep plans on track.

Not designed to manage complex projects in detail (integrations availables). 
Ease of use Complex software that requires significant training. Easy to use software, users are ready to go after a few minutes.
Used by Project managers and project portfolio managers. Everybody — Managers, project portfolio managers, project managers, employees.
Integration Both tools are complementary to help users get a complete view over all of their activities and the employees assigned to them while keeping control over larger project with all the required details.

Are You Already Using Microsoft EPM ?

Take a moment to look at the questions below to make sure Microsoft EPM really answers all your needs.

How are you tracking non-project-related activities?

Microsoft EPM is a powerful tool when it comes to executing on a complex project, but it can be too complex to track simpler tasks, even though they can account for a large part of the time your teams are putting in.

Are you tracking time precisely on those activities?

Non-project-related activities such as support or operations can make up a large amount of your team's time. Tracking that time is crucial if you want to optimize the way your team uses its time.

Do you know who is available and who has the right skills to work on a project?

Before getting started on your project and working on it in EPM, you will need to ensure you have the necessary resources to execute on it. Do you need to hire someone? What skills should they have? Beeye helps you answer these questions.

How do you manage all of your efforts & your workload?

If you teams are working on many projects, you must pay attention to everybody's workload as well as to the capacity of your team as a whole if you want to ensure you can deliver on time and on budget.

Are you taking administrative and operational activities into account when managing efforts?

Can you easily find out what time your team spends on maintenance, support, meetings, or activities such as training and holidays?

Can you easily compare planned and actual effort on your projects?

To improve your planning process and your next estimates, you must be able to compare planned and actual effort.

To summarize, Microsoft EPM is a project management solution that will allow you to plan and manage your large projects in detail.

Beeye comes into play so you can get a view of all activities and allows functional managers to plan efforts and manager their teams. It also enables collaborative planning — an approach where employees can estimate and plan their time themselves. 

That's why Beeye is a tool that's suited for both managers, project managers and employees. It is a standalone solution which can also integrate with other tools that answer to particular needs, such as Microsoft EPM.